Tag: growth

  • #ObserveMe: Changing culture in classrooms

    #BlAugust is going strong so far. I am digging the morning writing for sure. Yesterday I was taking a moment after work to look at my Twitter feed and I saw this hashtag #ObserveMe with a picture of a sign outside a classroom. It was this pic.  (you can click on any picture to make…

  • Questioning in a Theory class

    Hitting number 5 for #BlAugust on the 5th of August. Excellent. So far so good! Transitioning from teaching mathematics to teaching theory is difficult. Not because of the content, that is just reading and understanding what I read. No, it is difficult because of how I define teaching. Telling isn’t teaching. I decided a long…

  • You should make a mix tape

    On Friday last week at the end of the Step 1 class we were talking about engagement, high fives, enthusiasm, and why we are teachers. The conversation started with these two questions:  Write about a lesson / teacher who you remember using a 5E model. Write about a lesson / teacher who you remember did…

  • HS teachers, up your game

    I have been in Elementary school classrooms this semester observing my learners teach lessons. They are amazing, and the UTeach model of teacher education is one with which I am completely on board. My learners will have spent so much time in the classroom being observed and getting feedback that they will have no choice…

  • Intro to rational exponents & growth

    I want to do these in order of their occurrence today because it set the tone for me. I was giving an exam in AP Stats (hence no new info about AP Stats) and at the end the exam a learner handed me a note. It was very personal, but it essentially said “please forgive…

  • Growth mindset in my classroom

    I have been thinking a lot about growth mindset lately (really, what teacher is not.) But I have really been trying to come up with positive, constructive ways to model and use it in the classroom as a way to change the learners beliefs. One way I came up with using it is to have…

  • Growth Mindset Quotes

    My friend over at Cheesemonkey Wonders posted a list of Growth Mindset Quotes on her blog, and it made me realize that I do something similar.  Every single day of the year, I put a different quote on my board. They all deal with academics, success, fighting to learn or achieve, or something similar. I…

  • Using Essential Understanding to drive lesson planning

    Okay, I have to admit, I haven’t really designed my own curriculum for algebra 2 before. I just looked at the district blueprint, saw what chapters they expected me to cover, and did that. Sometimes I figured out homework assignments the morning of. Sometimes I had homework planned out weeks in advance. But I had…

  • A year off–Why and what I learned

    What a difference a year makes. Or not. No, it did make a difference. A year ago, I was in the middle of my 3rd year of teaching. Do you remember your third year? If it sucked, because you felt like an utter failure at every single lesson, every single exam, and everything else you…